An estimated 8,000 Gur Hasidim have gathered outside Prison 10 at the Beit Lid junction in an unusual protest following the arrest of a young man from the sect who is defined as a draft deserter, Israeli media report. Crowds are densely packed and loudspeakers call on participants to make room as the Gur rebbe is expected to arrive.
An estimated 8,000 Gur Hasidim have gathered outside Prison 10 at the Beit Lid junction in central Israel, in an unusual mass protest following the arrest of a young man from the sect who is defined as a military deserter. The demonstration, which has been building since Tuesday afternoon, now features dense crowds with loudspeaker announcements urging participants to make room as the Gur rebbe is expected to arrive at the scene. This marks the latest escalation in a coordinated campaign against arrests for draft evasion by ultra-Orthodox factions.
As The Zioneer reported on Tuesday at 17:48 Jerusalem, the protest was initially announced as a coordinated rally set for 16:00 outside Military Prison 10, with sect leaders coordinating the route with police and instructing followers to obey the law and avoid provocations. By 17:48, crowds had swelled to a state of "great urgency and extreme crowding," according to organizers, and the Gur rebbe was reported to be en route to address the crowd from a special podium. The current estimate of 8,000 protesters, reported earlier Wednesday, reflects a substantial intensification since those early reports, with multiple Israeli news outlets now corroborating the scale of the gathering.
This protest is the latest in a series of demonstrations by Haredi factions against the military prosecution of draft evaders, as The Zioneer has documented over the past week. On Monday, hundreds of protesters blocked the Gilat Junction near Ofakim in response to the arrest of a Haredi deserter; on Sunday night, protesters rallied outside the home of Supreme Court President-designate Yitzhak Amit in Mevaseret Zion; and earlier in the month, extremist groups staged multiple blockades in Ashdod, Beit Shemesh, and Jerusalem in connection with arrests linked to a disturbance outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg.
It remains unclear whether the Gur rebbe has arrived at the protest site as of this hour, and whether the demonstration will remain non-confrontational as sect leaders had pledged. No major confrontations with police have been reported at the Beit Lid junction so far.
17 developments
- DevelopingCounter-protesters in soldier pants confront Gur Hasidim outside Prison 10
- StrongExtremist Haredim protest outside Beit Lid military base against draft-evader arrests
- DevelopingPolice release detainee from Haredi protest as crowd celebrates
- DevelopingMinister Goldknopf joins Gur Hasidic protest near Beit Lid, police block Route 57
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